Chrysler, Nissan See Most Improvement in Q1 2014 Sales

CHICAGO--March 28, 2014: Cars.com projects a SAAR of 15.8 million new-car sales in March, up 3.3 percent from March 2013 and up 3.0 percent over February. This would mark the highest March SAAR since 2007.

Jesse Toprak, chief analyst for Cars.com, projects retail units to account for 81.5 percent of this month's total sales, up 3.2 percent from March 2013. New light-vehicle sales in the United States (including fleet) are expected to close out the month at 1,486,402 units, up 2.3 percent from this time last year and up 24.7 percent over the previous month.

"New vehicle sales are stuck in neutral so far this year," said Toprak. "Q1 results are lower than we anticipated and therefore we are lowering our annual forecast to 16.1 million units. Despite the rather stagnant pace of sales, we should keep in mind that the fundamentals of the industry are still sound. Improving consumer demand and lending trends, as well as a remarkable lineup of new products, will continue to bring a healthy level of buyers into showrooms. However, we are certainly transitioning from a market that was in hyper-recovery mode to a mature market where double-digit gains will be increasingly difficult to attain."